We've had Wikileaks the documentary, now it's Hollywood's turn to chart the story of Julian Assange.
The second WikiLeaks movie out this year, after Alex Gibney's brilliantly structured documentary We Steal Secrets, is admittedly also second best. But that's no fault of star draw Benedict Cumberbatch.
Initially the Sherlock actor, now ubiquitously described as 'otter-faced', looks off-puttingly weird as controversial, egocentric Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange: a white lank-haired salamander boasting a chapped trout pout suggestive of an all-night snog-a-thon – presumably with his own reflection, since there's barely a nod to those unanswered Swedish assault charges here.
However, Cumberbatch soon creates a performance whose mesmerising accuracy outshines the script he's working from. It's a pity it's not a biopic.
The setting is the build-up to the landmark moment WikiLeaks partnered with international mainstream media to publish the incendiary classified US military material downloaded by US Private Bradley Manning.
The angle is bromance-focused: seen through, and based largely on, the memoirs of Assange's embittered ex-WikiLeak colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Brühl).
But The Fifth Estate desperately wants to be an 'intelligent thriller', so, now and again, David Thewlis's Guardian journo helpfully appears to declare Very Important Things such as: 'You're starting an intelligence war with the United States', in case we've somehow missed What's At Stake.
Meanwhile, excitable multi-coloured graphics leap round the screen like ravers at 2am as soon as anyone starts typing anything – which they do a lot, given this story is entirely driven by intense cyber-nerds who go to groovy Berlin parties and message each other on their encrypted laptops.
The Fifth Estate is not on a par with The Social Network but it's still an interesting zeitgeister that'll give you plenty to tweet about.
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